


Weather the Storm

by WaistOfTime



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Aden is trans because I'm trans and I like having at least 1 trans character, F/F, MMORPGs, Sword Art Online inspired, some slow burn, somewhat of a LitRPG
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2019-10-20 19:57:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17628701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaistOfTime/pseuds/WaistOfTime
Summary: In the year 2025, fully immersive VR is not only a possibility, but a reality. The most anticipated game of the decade, Weather the Storm, is the most ambitious virtual reality game ever. The massively multiplayer online game has 100 floors in the base game for players to traverse through, and the millions of players who logged on during launch day are anxious to get started.Clarke and Lexa are two of those players. With high hopes, they booted up Weather the Storm the minute the servers went live. But the game isn't going to go as smoothly as they thought, and they soon find that Weather the Storm isn't just a game. It's something much, much darker.Or: The Sword Art Online inspired Clexa fic that nobody asked for.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> 0/ Hi there. Welcome to Weather the Storm. This fic spawns from my discord server egging me on after they found out that I started writing this fic about a year ago and never continued it. My original intent on writing a fic inspired by Sword Art Online was to fix the issues that damn show had with its game design. Hence why there's actually healers, mages, and ranged fighters in this version. Suck it, Reki Kawahara.   
> Anyhow, I'll warn you now. Most, if not all, of the characters, will come close to death in this fic. None of the main characters will die. A few minor characters, however, will die. One of which, in the next chapter, will take their own life. I know that this is triggering for me, personally, and it will be difficult for me to write it, so I figured I would warn you now.   
> Finally, a big thank you to NaokoSword for beta-ing this chapter! I couldn't have asked for a better beta for this. I'm in debt to her.  
> Alright, that's about it! I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Lexa watched the second’s hand on her clock tick anxiously. _Weather the Storm_ was set to officially open at 9:00 am PST. Since she lived on the east coast, that meant that the servers were going to open at 12:00 pm. Lexa found that to be a good thing because it meant she could eat lunch (which included a ham and cheese sub on rye bread, some strawberries, and a Powerade) and make sure she was ready for a long first session.

With only two minutes left, Lexa powered on her VRV in preparation. Finally, there were about ten seconds left, and she held the headset in mid-air with bated breath. When the clock struck 12:00 pm, Lexa’s headset was on and she was laying down on her bed, ready to start the game up.

When she loaded the game up for the first time, it spent a good minute unpacking the first-boot-up package. Luckily, inside the VRV, there was a game that you could play during loading screens, so Lexa spent that minute playing virtual reality ping-pong with a computer.

When her vision went black all of a sudden, Lexa felt her heart begin to race with anticipation. She skipped past the title screen so quickly that she barely got to see anything in it. There would be plenty of time to watch the opening screen movie after she played for a few hours today, so she hurriedly selected to start a new game and was ushered off into the character creator.

Lexa hadn't spent that much time in the character creator. The VRV scanned her upon turning it on the first time to get her height and approximate weight so that everybody would have a relatively accurate starting point. She picked a hairstyle that would show off the waves in her hair and played around with the color to make sure it was the right shade. If anything, she spent the longest making sure that her eyes were the correct shape and color. When she was satisfied with her character's look, she moved on to picking her class.

The three classes were Warrior, Archer, and Mage. In all honesty, Lexa didn't need to think too long to figure out which class she wanted, Warrior was the most appealing to her. The next part of character creation was dealing with dispersing her attribute points. There were six attributes to pick between, strength, dexterity, luck, vitality, intelligence, and perception. Strength, which determined the type of weaponry and armor you could use effectively and increased your inventory space with each additional point, and it was the main attribute for her class. Dexterity affected movement speed and dodging abilities. Luck made enemies more likely to drop items and more money found in chests. Vitality increased health points and resistances. Intelligence gave a chance to find a rare item upon inspecting an unknown object, and those with high intelligence were able to barter and lower prices on typical vendors. And the final attribute, perception, measured a player’s openness to their environment. Points in perception would help players find loot, traps, and enemies faster than others. 

By selecting the Warrior class, her stats were automatically set to 14 Strength, 9 Dexterity, 7 Luck, 12 Vitality, 4 Intelligence, and 8 Perception. She was given 5 points to play around with, and she decided upon putting three into dexterity, and the final two into strength and perception. She smiled, looking over her character one more time, then hit the continue button in the corner of her vision. A dialog box popped up, with a holographic keyboard underneath it. 

"Please name your character!" it read, "We recommend naming yourself something that your fellow players will be able to pronounce, and that you will be comfortable being called for the duration of your time playing. Example: Jonathan Stormbringer, Mary Darkreaver, etc."

Lexa pursed her lips. There was a box for first and last name, and she figured she could just keep her first name the same, but the last name was going to be tricky. She didn't want to use her real last name. Since there were so many creepy men on the internet, using her real last name could get her a lot of unwanted attention. She could just imagine it now. There was no telling how many middle-aged men would try to find her on Facebook or Instagram. 

Her fingers hovered over the keys. She could tack on some other word to her real last name and call it done, but she couldn't really think of something that would sound good. Woodssong, Woodsshield, Woodsvalor... nothing sounded right. Finally, she gave up and hit the randomize last name button a few times. She sighed at some of the last names she was getting. She was about to give up and take the next decent sounding name she got when the randomizer struck gold. She grinned and hit confirm. 

"Welcome, Lexa Nightblood, to the world of Weather the Storm!"  the announcer said as her vision faded to white. She shut her eyes out of reflex, and all of a sudden, she began to hear muffled noise coming through her ears. It got louder and louder until she could begin to make out words and laughter. She opened her eyes and found herself standing in the middle of a crowded town square, surrounded by men and women of all ages. 

She stared in awe at her surroundings. The sky above was bright blue and clear, save for a few birds that flew through the air periodically. She looked at the sun and felt her eyes begin to ache almost immediately, just like they would in the real world. The buildings around her were made of brick and cobblestone, with a few NPC's peeking their heads out of the windows every once in a while. She looked down at the ground, finding it made of a smooth stone rather than the cobbled stone of the buildings around her. She squatted down and pressed her fingertips against the ground, feeling its texture on her fingertips. Not only was she amazed that it felt exactly how she expected, but she also found herself marveling how her own hands looked. She watched her fingers moving on the ground, focusing on the feeling it was pulling in her. 

Unfortunately, instead of a pleasant feeling, she felt her fingers being crushed as somebody pushing through the crowd stepped on her hand. She grunted out a pained, "Oh, hell!" as the pain raced up her arm. The person who stepped on her didn't seem to notice and just continued walking through the square. Lexa stood and shook her hand. She noticed a flashing red light in the corner of her vision and looked up to find her health bar. A small section of it flashing red along with the words SAFE ZONE: HEALTH LOSE PREVENTED. Lexa frowned. If the health loss was only prevented because this was a safe zone, did that mean that she could be damaged by fellow players outside of this zone? 

She decided not to dwell on the thought for too long, however. She pulled up the menu and looked through her starting gear. All she started with was a rusty chest plate, worn boots, and a beginners’ sword, along with a few health potions and an optional shield which she was planning on selling anyway. She switched her tab over, looking at the skill tree specific to her class. Her eyes widened at how extensive it was. She couldn't quite take it in all at once, but she found that there were four different skill trees that you could choose to focus on; Sword and shield, two-handed, dual wielding, and bludgeon. She switched over to the other set of skill trees, having a decently good idea of which path she wanted to pursue. The general skill trees included things like lockpick, cooking, and smithing, things that any class could pick up that might help them along in the general world.

Lexa grinned, closing the menu. She turned on her heel and started to run through the bazaar. She glanced around the merchant stalls as she ran, looking around for anything that could help her along in the early game. At a glance, she didn't see anything she wanted, so she kept running until she found the edge of town.

The outskirts of town were mostly residential houses, of which Lexa saw no signs of life. They were built on stone foundations, but the majority of the houses were made of wood. They all had boarded up windows, and the corners of them were covered in spider webs. Seeing this, Lexa paused in her running. She approached the nearest house, a little bit confused when suddenly a dialogue box popped up in front of her. It read, “To purchase, 5,000 gold. Confirm?”

Lexa backed up slowly, selecting cancel. She turned away, starting back on the path out of town. _No wonder all those houses were empty,_ she thought to herself, _they’re for the players!_

After a bit more walking, she reached the exit. The exit of the Town of Beginnings was a stone wall with an archway. Beyond the arch, Lexa could see a massive field. The field was golden, swaying in the soft wind, with a few trees dotting the horizon. As she looked through the archway, she noticed the tree that she had been looking at distorted slightly.

Lexa held her hand out and reached to the exit. As her hand was about to cross the threshold, she found that it came in contact with something. It wasn’t hard like a wall, but almost like a curtain. The curtain shifted with her hand, and Lexa took the plunge and walked through it. The feeling was strange, almost as if she were a drop of oil in a glass of water. The curtain resisted her at first, but as she pushed through, it parted for her, and she broke through on the other side.

Lexa hadn’t realized before how dull the colors had been. On the other side of the archway, the color of the field was much deeper, so rich and enticing that it looked like it would be the perfect place to lay down and just bask in the sun. Lexa beamed and ran out into the field.

And she would have kept running, but she heard a chime and saw a red dot from her message box. She stopped, still smiling widely as she opened the message.

All that it said was, "I see you."

She spun around, trying to figure out who it was. Finally, her eyes landed on her best friend, Anya, running towards her from inside the city. The gateway shimmered and rippled as Anya walked through it, signaling that they were no longer in a safe area.

"Hey! I finally caught up with you!" Anya said, clapping Lexa on the shoulder. "I'm glad we got in before the server filled up. I thought you said we would meet up in the town square when we got in?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry. It was too hectic in there for me." Lexa shifted on her feet. In all honesty, she completely forgot that they were going to meet up. She was more interested in starting the game. "How did you even find me out here?"

"Go into your settings and enable the mini-map. It shows where your friends are."

"Oh," Lexa said, looking away. Her eyes fell on a boar grazing in the tall grass of the field at the top of a hill. "Well... I was about to start grinding for levels, wanna join?"

Anya grinned, following her gaze to the boar, and pulled out her sword. "Now you're speaking my language. Let's hunt."

Lexa pulled her sword out as well, and the two of them walked further into the field, up toward the boar. As they approached, the boar looked up and squealed, turning away and running away from them down the other side of the hill. Anya looked over to Lexa before breaking into a sprint, and Lexa followed after her.

At the top of the hill, they both stopped dead in their tracks. Beyond the hill they found a pack of boars, maybe seven to ten of them, grazing peacefully. Lexa heard Anya chuckle, and before she realized it the two of them were running down the hill, charging at the pack of boars gleefully.

As the boars saw their approach, a few of them began to run away, but a few of the others stomped their feet and aggroed on the two. One of them charged at Anya, and Lexa watched her dodge narrowly to the side. The boar tried to stop itself quickly and turn around, but Lexa was already on it, delivering a swift slash to its flank as she passed it.

Lexa watched a third of its health bar disappear, and before she could try to get another hit in, Anya came in on the other side with a hit of her own. The boar staggered, its front legs buckling at the knees, and Lexa and Anya took this opportunity to strike at the same time. The boar’s health bar whittled down to zero, and it began to disintegrate into nothing before them.

A text box appeared in the corner of Lexa’s vision, letting her know that she had gained 6 experience points and a boar tusk from the kill. Lexa smiled, and lifted her head up, ready to face the other boars head on.

 

Clarke tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Raven and Octavia to get logged on. She had already slowly walked through the market for about 15 minutes, looking through the available vendors' wares. Now, however, she absentmindedly looked through her spell book as she waited, studying the different types of magic that were available to learn in the game. There was elemental magic, necromancy, conjuration, enchantment, transmutation, and quite a few more. Clarke looked through all of their skill trees, trying her best to figure out if it would be smarter to be more of a jack of all trades or to focus on one skill tree only. She read through the descriptions of the high-level spells and found herself grinning at the prospect of being a badass elemental mage.

But thinking about that only made her even more impatient for her friends to arrive. She really just wanted to start getting spells and doing quests. She wanted to get into the game, instead of standing here, holding her beginner's staff and watching the new players flooding into the plaza. The number of people getting spawned in was honestly amazing. Clarke knew that _Weather the Storm_ had been highly anticipated since it's gameplay debut at E3 last year, but it was amazing many people were already in the game at just thirty minutes into launch.

"Clarke!"

She turned and saw Octavia making her way toward her, pulling Raven along behind. Raven was in light, leather armor with a basic bow, while Octavia had a dented chest plate and a sword on her hip. Clarke pushed her weight off the wall, smiling widely as her friends came over to her. The three of them hugged, laughing when they separated.

"I can't believe how real this feels!" Octavia exclaimed, flexing her fingertips.

"I know, right? It's like this is the real world." Clarke said. "Have you guys gotten to look at the skill trees yet? There's some really cool abilities in the mage skills, and I bet there's a lot of awesome stuff in yours too."

"Oh, I know. I managed to find the skill trees last night. Monty and I were up all night looking them over." Raven smirked, looking very proud of herself.

Octavia gasped and jabbed Raven with her elbow. "And you didn't send them to us? That's rude as hell, Rae."

"Ow! Hey, cut me some slack! We pulled an all-nighter to find them, and by the time we realized what time it was, we rushed off to bed so we would be ready for launch!" Raven rubbed her side where Octavia had hit her. "C'mon, we should get out of town and start grinding levels. There might be some kind of launch day surprise."

"Agreed," Clarke said, starting to turn and lead them out of the plaza. "There should be some good hunting grounds just outside of town, maybe we can even pick up a few low-level quests too."

Octavia sped up to walk next to her, squinting and pointing at something in the distance. "We should check the bulletin board, there might be something useful there."

The closer they got to the bulletin board, the bigger the crowd got around it. Luckily for them, they didn't have to physically touch it. There was about a six-foot radius around it where anybody could interact with it. Most of the quests gave gold as their reward, the biggest reward giving 800 gold for 20 Alpha Wolf pelts. Clarke scrolled down the board, trying to find quests that would give materials or equipment instead of gold. From her short trip into the market, she found that the items that vendors sold were priced pretty high compared to the cost of the materials that it took to make them. It would mean that Clarke would have to invest some of her skill points in crafting, but if it meant she could get better items faster, it would be worth it.

Finally, she found something that caught her eye. Near the bottom of the list was a community posted quest. The description read, "Join the raiding party to beat the first boss! We want to get to the second level as quickly as possible, and in order to get to and defeat the first boss, we need everybody in the party to be at least level 8, but if you can grind to a higher level it would help. Meet at the dungeon gates when the time for this quest expires!"

"Hey, hey, guys," Clarke said, getting Octavia and Raven's attention. "We should try to join the raiding party for the first boss."

 

Lexa flopped back onto the grass, sighing. She pulled up her character stats, groaning when she noticed that she was still 100 XP from level 9. The boars that she and Anya were grinding really weren't giving a good amount of experience anymore. Plus, the longer they were there, the more people started to trickle in to grind for themselves. "Anya?"

Anya finished the boar that she had been focusing on with one strike. "Yeah?"

"Let's move somewhere else." Lexa pushed herself up. "I'm bored here."

"I agree, there's no use in fighting the same mobs over and over again." Anya sat down next to Lexa, pulling up her map. "And, these boars aren't giving much XP now. Where should we go?"

Lexa hummed, bringing up her own map. There was another town nearby, but Lexa figured that it wouldn't have anything good either since the Town of Beginnings was the biggest hub on this floor. She frowned. Most of this floor was used as a tutorial. It obviously wasn't designed to allow people to grind for levels or items. The Town of Beginnings took up the majority of the floor. From the layout of the floor, it didn't look like there was any room for a specific area to spawn a different type of enemy. That meant there was only one other place to go...

"What about the dungeon?"

"The dungeon?" Anya seemed to think about it for a long minute as she replied to direct messages. "Do you really think that's a good idea?"

"Well, I think it's worth a shot. If we can't gain any more out here on the floor, it might be a sign that we're supposed to move on to the next floor. Besides, if we die we'll just respawn. Not like it's a big deal." Lexa marked the entrance on her map and closed it again. The waypoint wasn't visible on her minimap due to the distance, but a pulse of yellow emanated from its direction, telling her which direction they would need to go.

Anya nodded and stood up. "Well, you have a point. Lead the way then."

They started off toward the dungeon. It wasn't a very long or treacherous journey., They had a few random encounters with wolves along the way, but it was nothing they couldn't handle at level 8. Lexa watched as her experience needed to level up lowered from 100 down to 36, but they didn't run into any more wolves along the way, unfortunately. When they reached the dungeon gates, they found a decently large group of people standing around it.

As they approached, a black man stepped forward to meet them. "Hey, are you guys here for the raiding party?"

Lexa blinked. "Raiding party?"

"Yeah," he said, "We're forming a party to beat the first boss. It's an open invitation to anybody level 8 or higher."

Anya threw her arm around Lexa's shoulders. "In that case, we're definitely here for the raid party!"

"Awesome!" the man grinned. He fiddled in his menu for a moment, and a second later they got an invitation to join the party from him. Then he tilted his body to look around Anya, "Oh, there's some more people coming, I've gotta go talk to them."

"Thanks Lincoln!" Anya said, turning to wave at him as he sprinted off. When she turned back, she found Lexa glaring at her. "What? You need to make more friends. I'm just helping along. Plus, it's probably a good thing to have a group going into an unknown area."

They had to wait around for about half an hour before the leader of the party announced that they would be heading inside. The group was heavy on damage dealers. Many of the melee players had chosen two-handed weaponry or dual wielding, and most of the mages had chosen to use destruction magic. Luckily there was a good number of clerics among the melee players and healers within the mages. Although Lexa hadn't bought any health potions in the town before leaving, she had put one of her first skill points into battle healing in the dual wielding skill tree. Unfortunately, she was going to have to go into this fight without an upgraded weapon or armor.

That is what she _was_ going to have to do anyway. Until someone tapped on her shoulder.

 

"Clarke, just go over there," Raven said, sounding annoyed. "You've been staring at that girl for over ten minutes now. I think you might actually be drooling."

"Wh- go over there? And what?" Clarke shook her head, putting her hands on her hips. "What would I say? 'Hey, I know we're inside a video game right now but you're really hot and I wouldn't mind shoving your head between my thighs and holding it there for hours?'"

Raven raised her hands and backed up a few steps. "Jesus Clarke, down girl. Maybe don't pull out the big guns like that for the first impression."

"Here," Octavia pulled a sword out of her inventory. "I bought this sword so I could try out the different classes before committing to one. She still has the starter sword on. Go give this to her."

She shoved the sword into Clarke's chest and Raven shoved her from behind toward the mystery girl. She cried out in surprise, almost falling over as she tripped over her own feet. The girl (and most of the crowd for that matter) turned to look at her curiously, and it took all of her coordination to right herself again. She looked away for a few seconds, and when she glanced back, the girl had looked away again. She sighed, relieved.

She walked forward and tapped on the mystery girl's shoulder, clearing her throat. The girl turned her head again, and Clarke was stunned into silence by the pair of green eyes that met hers. They were so stunning that she couldn't help but just stare into them for longer than she intended. She felt her jaw about to drop when she took in the exquisite angles of her face and the luxurious waves of her hair as it fell over one shoulder.

She gulped and held the sword out in front of her. "I noticed you were still using the starting equipment, and I thought you might want something better since... yeah."

The woman took the sword, examining it closely. She nodded, putting it in her inventory. It disappeared from her hand, then reappeared on a sheath on her hip. She turned back to Clarke. "Thanks."

"Yeah," Clarke breathed, "Don't mention it."

After a few seconds of silence, Clarke turned and hastily walked back to her friends, head tilted down and cheeks red. She buried her face in her hands. "Oh God that was embarrassing."

"It didn't look that bad from here," Raven said. Clarke looked up at her, glaring. She winced, "Okay, yeah, it looked bad. But at least you talked to her, yeah? What's her name?"

Clarke went silent. She groaned loudly into her hands.

Octavia stepped in this time, "Wait, you did get her name... right?"

Clarke shook her head, refusing to look at either of them.

Octavia and Raven looked at each other. Slowly, a smile stretched across Raven's face and she burst out in laughter. Octavia quickly joined in. Clarke couldn't even look up. She didn't dare see who was looking at the three of them. "Yeah, yeah, laugh at my misfortune why don't you?"

"It's just... so funny!" Raven was doubled over with laughter. She wiped a tear from her eye and straightened her back. "Hey, I mean, it's not like this is the only chance you'll get. But boy did you mess that first try up."

"Everybody! We're going to start heading into the dungeon now!" Lincoln called from near the gates. Clarke started to make her way to the middle of the group, turning around to flip Octavia and Raven the bird. It only made the two of them laugh even harder.

With that, all the melee characters moved to the front, the ranged players behind them, and the mages at the very back. Since they were generally unable to protect themselves in the event they were attacked by multiple enemies, they were put in the back to keep them alive. Many of the destruction mages would have taken a skill to buff weapons with elemental magic and figuring out which buffs did the most damage to the boss would be the most helpful in terms of defeating it in a timely manner.

The group forged on ahead, walking through the gates into the dungeon. Inside the dungeon looked like a cave, dark and damp with stalactites hanging from the ceiling and water dripping onto the floor. The air smelled horrible, and the scent made Clarke pull the collar of her robe up and over her nose. Her feet were sloshing through an inch-deep pool of water, and she couldn't help but wonder what this boss would be like.

Before she could really think about it, however, she heard a loud yell from the front of the group. She could see somebody raising their sword and throwing it down, and she saw the virtual dust rising into the air before disappearing.

"There are alligators guys! Be careful!"

The moment that left someone's lips, Clarke felt a sharp pain in her leg and saw her hit points lower to seventy-eight out of one hundred six. She looked down and saw an alligator holding on tight to her leg, and she pulled her staff up and struck it in the nose. Out of shock, the alligator released her leg, and she hit it with an ice-spike. The alligator didn't die, but it was very, very close. One more whack with her staff did it, but just barely.

The mage next to her, a friendly but stoic man named Nyko, cast a quick heal on her, healing her for twenty hit points of HP. She thanked him, then the group went on their way. They had a few more encounters with the alligators along the way, mostly because they didn't know exactly where they were supposed to be going in order to get to the boss room. They just kept walking ahead, until they hit a dead end, at which a number of alligators seemed to crawl out of the cracks and crevices of the dungeon to attack. By this time, luckily, the group had gotten used to the attacks, and they were defeated with almost no injuries.

Clarke had gained a level from fighting the alligators, and she noticed that Nyko and the other healers were starting to run out of mana and potions as they tried to keep up with the number of people they needed to heal. She realized at that point that if they kept going like this, they weren't going to have enough healers for the actual boss, so she put her newly acquired skill point into a quick heal skill.

Finally, after it seemed like they had cleared out the entire dungeon, they found the boss room. An ominous set of great oaken doors which were waiting to be pushed open. A skull was carved into the stone just above the doors, leaving no question as to if this was what they were looking for.

Lincoln stopped everybody before pushing open the door, "Are we all ready?" he asked.

"Yeah!" the party shouted in reply.

"Let's go!"

Lincoln put his hand on the door, and it seemed like he didn't even have to push. Just the touch of his hand had the doors swinging open. The room inside was completely dark for a moment, but one by one, torches lit up around the room, casting a blue-green light into the area. There didn't seem to be anything inside, as far as they could tell. But nobody had walked inside yet.

Lincoln took the first step. The doorway shimmered as he entered, and the second his foot touched the ground, a great, screeching cry erupted from the boss room. The rest of the party rushed in just in time to see a huge alligator burst through the ground of the arena. Smaller, normal sized alligators crawled up through the hole it had torn in the floor. Clarke watched in awe as it threw its head back and let out a loud scream again. At the bottom of her screen, a large red health bar appeared with the words "Alligator Authority," written above it.

When the initial shock of the first sighting of the boss faded, Clarke heard somebody from the front barking orders.

"Everybody, fan out! Mages stay near the back and try to take care of the minions! Archers stick to the sides of the arenas and help us pin down the boss! Melee, with me, we're going to buy the archers and mages as much time as we can to kill the minions and keep the boss off of them!" Lincoln yelled.

He stayed back as the melee fighters ran forward, smashing his sword into an alligator minion approaching him. As he straightened up, he turned his head to the group of mages, "Use your destruction magic to kill the minions! Ice and earth should work the best against them. Healers watch for anybody low on health! This battle is going to be hectic, we need to stay on top of it and make sure everybody survives!"

With that, Lincoln turned and raced into the fray. Clarke and the other mages turned their attention to the minions that seemed to ooze like liquid from the hole in the ground, doing their best to defeat them before they could cause trouble for the fighters. Clarke watched the battlefield like a hawk, using her basic attacks in between the times that her spells were on cooldown. Between waves of minions, Clarke would point out fighters that were particularly low on health and throw a few spears of ice at the boss.

The battle raged on like that for a while. It seemed like the minions that crawled out of the hole were never-ending. Clarke knew that many of the mages were starting to run out of mana potions, and, although their mana would continuously regenerate, it wouldn't be enough to keep up with everything. They had basic attacks they could use while their mana regenerated, but it wouldn’t do enough damage to make a difference at this rate. Frantically, she looked for a solution. _The boss had come out of a hole in the ground, so there had to be something under it. Alligators are partly aquatic, and this cave is dripping with water so that means..._

Clarke broke away from her group of mages and ran into the battlefield. She did her best to fend off the minions as she passed them, and luckily, she was faster than them. She was getting dangerously close to the boss now, and she watched as its eye trained on her. It screeched, throwing its head back. Clarke watched as the minions mimicked the boss, and her eyes widened as all the mobs in the room began to glow. An icon appeared above the Alligator Authority's health bar; a sword with arrows pointing upwards. Every single enemy in the room had definitely had its attack power buffed, and Clarke turned hastily and ran the rest of the way to the hole that the boss had jumped out of.

Just as she thought, there was a steady stream flowing at the bottom of the hole. Clarke knew that she was inside a video game and that everything wasn't realistic, but it still surprised her to see alligator minions crawling up the side of the rocks. She was so glad she invested a skill point in Water Manipulation because that was the only way she was going to get her plan to work. She activated the skill, pulling the water up the hole as quickly as she could. The skill only lasted for five seconds at the first level, and she started to worry that it might not be enough time. At three seconds the water was about half way up, and at one second, Clarke had gotten it up into the battlefield.

She grunted loudly as she pushed the water to cover the Alligator Authority's legs and mouth, doing her best to keep the water out of the warrior’s way. She held it there with her right hand, and activated her Frost Cone spell, pointing her staff at the boss.

"Go!" Clarke screamed.

 

Lexa had been fighting on the front lines, her new sword helping her deflect the Alligator Authority's attacks while she slashed at its scaly skin. Something had caught her eye, however, and she watched in awe as a giant wave of water rose up from the floor and covered the boss's legs and face. She jumped backward, trying not to get caught up in the water, and turned her head, searching for the source. There, standing by the side of the boss, was the pretty mage that she had met outside. Her blonde hair whipped around her face as she pointed her staff forward, and a blinding flash of light began to emanate from it. Lexa suddenly felt a chill, and the wind around her picked up. She turned her head back to the boss, watching as the water started to freeze.

The mage moved to hold her staff with both hands, amplifying her frost spell, blasting more freezing air on the boss. The ice creaked dangerously as the boss tried to move his body, eyes narrowing, but the ice was solid.

"Go!" The mage yelled, keeping her frost spell up.

The mage's voice pulled Lexa from her stupor. She activated her new berserk ability that she had been able to get from hitting level 9 and charged at the boss. Her high agility level allowed her to jump far into the air, and she used it to vault herself directly onto the Alligator Authority's head. It only had about a fourth of its health left, which was probably why it had buffed itself and its minions. As she landed, she plunged both of her swords into its skull, and she watched as a third of its remaining health disappeared. _The top of the skull must be a weak point,_ Lexa thought to herself.

She pulled her swords back out and ran across its head until she found the eye. If the skull was weak, chances were the eyes should be even weaker. Leaning over, she thrust her swords into its massive left eye. Blood sprayed out from the wound, coating Lexa's hand. A guttural roar sounded from somewhere within its body, and as Lexa's swords twisted, its health bar depleted to zero. Finally, its body went limp, and it disintegrated into thin air, leaving behind only pixels. Lexa fell to the ground, stuck inside of an icy cast of the Alligator Authority.

There was a moment of silence, and then the room erupted in glee-filled cries. Lexa started to climb out of the ice, and she stood at the top of it, watching the players laughing. Some shook hands, some hugged each other, and some fell to the floor, relieved beyond expectations. A window popped up in her view, reading, " _Congratulations, you have received the final hit bonus!"_

She furrowed her brows as she opened her inventory, sorting her items by newest. It was a piece of armor, a pauldron with a long red cloth attached to it. the description read, " _Leader's Pauldron: a legendary piece of armor given to the first to defeat the first boss. Gives plus +3 strength, +5 intelligence, +4 vitality. Unique item scales with its user's level."_

Lexa dragged it to her accessory slot and it materialized on her shoulder. She felt its weight, and she straightened her posture to compensate for it. She turned her head to look at her back, finding the cloth dragging on the floor.

Then she looked back up again and noticed everybody was in their inventory's. At first, she thought there was nothing strange about it, but she found that it was totally quiet, and they were all staring ahead blankly. Lexa frowned, then she caught sight of a notification in the top corner of her screen. She had an unopened message on her VRV. Upon selecting it, she found it to be from a user named Titus FlameKeeper, and her eyes widened. She recognized that IGN. He was the creator of _Weather the Storm._

It was a video message, and the thumbnail had him sitting in a desk chair, recording from a webcam. She hit the play button quickly, resting her weight on one foot as she settled to watch.

The video started slowly as it seemed like he didn't edit the video at all. He left in the portion where he started the recording and made sure it was working, and leaned back in his chair, smiling at the camera. Titus might have been a brilliant game designer, but that brilliance didn't seem to extend to film making. "Hello players, this is your Game Master, Titus FlameKeeper. This message was programmed to be sent out to you all upon defeating the first boss, and now the real fun can begin. I’m sure that many of you have seen the interviews, or maybe even my TED talk from a year ago. I have always said that I intended to create _Weather the Storm_ to showcase humanity’s true nature."

Titus was smiling devilishly, folding his hands in his lap. He pointed up at the left-hand corner of the video. "I'm sure many of you have noticed by now that an integral part of the game has disappeared from the options menu. The log-out function."

Titus paused, as if he knew that Lexa's heart would drop to her stomach and she would search the options menu for the log-out button in a frenzy.

"I assure you, this is not a bug. I'm sure that many of you have already sent me bug reports." he laughed, rubbing his bald head. “This is how I always wanted it to be. This is exactly the game that I intended to create. As of now, you are all fighting for your lives inside of an arena of my design. None of you will be able to log out of the game until the final boss at the apex of floor 100 has been defeated."

Lexa gasped. She thought back to the Reddit AMA's that Titus had participated it. She herself had asked him how long he expected the initial hundred floors to take to complete, and he had answered that he expected the base game to last two years. At the time that had made her even more excited, but now that knowledge only filled her with dread. Two years trapped inside of this game.

"Now, don't expect that this will be easy, because I’ve got some big news for you all. A death in this game will result in the loss of your life _outside of_ the game as well. Being trapped inside the game is pointless if you don't have an incentive to play strategically, therefore inside of your VRV headsets, there is a small, yet very volatile chip resting against the back of your head, right at your brain stem. If the VRV runs out of power, or if somebody tries to remove it, this chip will explode, or it will overheat at the very least, damaging your brain beyond repair. The VRV has been programmed to recognize the death of your character as a trigger to activate the nature of this chip." Titus smiled, looking into the camera. He balled his hands into fists and made an explosion noise, opening his hands and moving them away from his head. "There is some good news, however. After the final boss at the top of floor 100 has been defeated, the VRV will safely power off and they will be able to be removed. Until then, I've released the information on how to track the GPS signal of each active VRV to the national police. I don't want any of you to die _outside_ of the game."

“This is the culmination of all that I have worked for my entire life.” Titus sat up again, leaning his elbows on his desk. “The question is, will you all step up to the plate, or will you fall to your knees and beg for mercy. This is the question that I seek to answer, and I look forward to finding the answer with you all. Now, I believe you all have about 99 levels left. I'll leave you to it."

The video ended, the screen going black. A replay button appeared in the middle of the media player, and Lexa stared at it blankly.  

She closed her messages, her arm falling limply to her side. Nobody was talking yet, but they were moving and looking around now. Finally, a man near the middle of the pack of fighters dropped his sword and shield, falling to his knees. The loud clatter caused a ripple effect, and suddenly everyone was screaming and crying in anger, sadness, grief, and so many other emotions. Lexa watched them all from her position, heart twisting and tearing as she listens to their screams. 

"I have work tomorrow! I can't be stuck in here! How am I going to keep my house?!"

"What about my kids?! And my dog?!"

"I'm going to flunk out of school!"

Lexa clenched her fists at her sides, eyes squeezed shut. Tears welled in her eyes, and she was helpless to stop a few which streaked lines down her face. “Damn it…” she said through clenched teeth.

Her hands were shaking with anger. She opened her eyes, gaze falling on a portal that had opened up in the middle of the room. If Titus thought he was going to be able to trap them all inside this game until they died, then he was dead wrong. Lexa jumped down from the ice platform, walking defiantly toward the portal. She was going to get out of this game, if for no other reason than to prove anybody who said it couldn’t be done wrong.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey,  
> Sorry about the long wait between chapters. I'm a junior in college in the high school English teaching track. But hey! I hope you enjoy the almost 10,000 words, and I hope that makes up for it!  
> As always, thanks to my beta, NaokoSword! She keeps me sane.

Clarke didn't know what to do. She stood there, still having not moved from the spot where she had held the boss in place. She lost the will to hold her arms up, and the grip on her staff weakened until it clattered uselessly to the floor. There was no way that this was real, it was so absurd. With a shaky hand, she opened the menu again. Inventory, abilities, equipment, friends list, inbox, options. 

No log-out button. 

This was real. 

Realization hit her in a tidal wave of panic. If they were really trapped inside the game, then everything else that Titus had said must be true. Cotton had been stuffed in her ears while came to the realization, and it was suddenly yanked out. The panicked yelling of the raiding party assaulted her ears. She was stunned for a moment, but the infectious dread forced its way into her psyche. 

 _Octavia, Raven, where are they?_  

She looked to her right, there was nothing but the dark cavern of the boss room, the hole in the world where the boss had erupted. Once loud and roaring, she could no longer hear the swift, running water of the stream below over the cries of anguish filling the room.

She looked to her left, where the people of the raiding party had all clumped together in a circle. She scanned the group, searching for dark hair or Latina skin. With no success, she bent down to pick up her staff and started walking. As she got closer, a hand clapped on her shoulder, stopping her from moving any further. She turned her head and found Raven looking at her, Octavia behind her. Suddenly she felt her eyes growing watery, and she all but fell into Raven's arms. 

"Thank God you guys are okay," Clarke said, holding Raven to her until her muscles ached. She only let go of Raven to pull Octavia in as well. 

"I watched you run into the fight from the sidelines, after the announcement I got so scared that you died doing that!" Raven said, pulling back with her hands on Clarke's shoulders. "But it was so fucking badass that I'll let it slide this time." 

The three of them hugged and squeezed each other, reassuring them that they were alive. Octavia was the first to pull back. She gasped, her hand flying up to her mouth and going stiff as a board. "What about Bellamy? And Jasper? They weren't here, right?" 

"Oh fuck," Raven said, "Monty and Finn logged in too." 

Panic sunk into Clarke's chest, a sandbag pulling her heart down into her stomach. She only  _just_ managed to keep from vomiting. "Aden." 

Raven's eyes widened, "Your cousin? I thought he was sixteen, isn't this game rated M?"

"His birthday was yesterday, he's seventeen now. He wouldn't have missed the launch day for the world. I think he stayed home from school today." Clarke pulled up her inventory, finally finding her teleport crystals. She selected it, and three crystals dropped out of her inventory and into her hands. She handed one to Octavia and Raven. "We need to get back to the Town of Beginnings." 

Octavia and Raven nodded, and the three of them placed their other hand on top of the crystal. Clarke watched her own form shimmer, and with a bright flash, they were transported back to the Town of Beginnings. 

The town square was much,  _much_ less crowded than it had been during launch. The only people who were in the square now were people laying on the bricks or benches, staring up at the sky. Many of them looked hopeless and as if they had already given up. Clarke couldn't exactly blame them if she was being honest. This was going to cost people their whole lives. Students were going to have to drop out of college, people would lose their jobs, some might even lose their significant others. Kids like Aden would have to drop out of high school, and Clarke honestly had no idea if the American public-school system would allow them to pick up where they left off, or if they would have to just go straight for a GED. 

Clarke opened her menu and pulled up her friends list. At the moment Bellamy, Raven, and Octavia were the only people on her friends list. As much as Clarke tried to be a cool cousin, she got the feeling that Aden didn't particularly want her following him around while he played. He probably thought that she was going to report any non-perfect behavior to his parents. She and Finn had a nasty breakup about a year prior, so Clarke hadn't even bothered to send him her friend code, even though she knew that he owned a VRV and had planned on getting  _Weather the Storm._ After Finn's few - and rather pitiful - attempts at winning her back, the two of them had barely spoken. He and Raven had an on-off relationship for most of their lives it seemed like. Clarke knew that they were on an off-season at the moment, but that didn't mean that Raven didn't care to know if he was still alive or not. 

Raven currently lived in a two bedroom two bath townhouse with Monty and Jasper. She had known them since they met in the robotics class in college. Later she found out that they had actually gone to the same high school for a time, but they both got in trouble for smoking weed on campus (and getting caught) so often that the principal of Arkadia High School determined that the only course of action left was to expel them both. Nevertheless, both of them were pretty brilliant in their own rights. Monty, like Raven, was mechanically inclined. He liked building and programming things. Jasper, on the other hand, never really grew out of his weed phase. He went into college for botany, with a minor in robotics. While he wasn't as good at it as Monty and Raven were, he was able to keep up. In her sophomore year, Raven found herself in need of a place to live, and Jasper and Monty found themselves needing a roommate. 

Clarke, Octavia, and Raven had all gone to the same school throughout most of their lives. Bellamy, Octavia's older brother, was her only support system. He had to drop out of high school when their mother began bringing trouble to their house in the form of drug dealers and alcoholics. He ran away from home, taking multiple jobs in their hometown and staying at friends’ houses until he had enough money saved up to afford a dingy, one bedroom one bath apartment for himself and Octavia. When he had secured the apartment, he came back and took Octavia with him. Octavia and Bellamy emancipated themselves from their mother, and Bellamy became Octavia's legal guardian for the rest of the time she spent in school. 

"Who's closest?" Clarke asked. "From what I can tell Bellamy's still in the town." 

"Monty and Jasper are too," Raven said, leaning over to compare the hologram of Clarke's map to her own. "But it looks like they're on opposite sides of town. Finn is in the fields, probably farming mobs."

"So, Bellamy first?" Octavia suggested. "Looks like he's closest."

“We should ask them to join our party,” Clarke suggested. “It’s gotta be safer in a large group than it is in small ones.”

Octavia nodded. “Even if we aren’t together all the time, being in a party will at least mean that I’ll be easier to contact each other.

So the three of them started walking. The square had three exits, southwest to the markets, southeast to the outside of town, and north to the bigger shops and taverns. If she had to equate it to a real-life town, Clarke would wager to say that southwest was considered downtown, and north was uptown. If real people lived in this town, the richer ones would want to live further away from the danger, and in turn force the less fortunate to live closer to or on the edge of the city. Bellamy seemed that he was in uptown, and Clarke and Raven let Octavia lead, mostly because Bellamy would probably be most relieved to see her. This part of town was somewhat deserted, only a few players were littering the streets as they walked past. They passed by various upscale looking shops, which towered over them, casting long shadows in the setting sun. 

The day's in  _Weather the Storm_ were the same length as real days, with the time system being set on the west coast of the United States. Considering Clarke lived in Washington D.C., that meant she had been playing for over eight hours already. She shuddered at how quickly time had gone by. The hours leading up to the boss battle had flown by, and now time was slowing down to a normal pace again. The sky above began to manifest clouds, a deep lavender color against the orange and scarlet and fuchsia of the setting sun. If she were at home, she would set up her easel and pull out her paints and brushes. It was rather beautiful against the stark cobbled stone of the buildings and thatch roofs. It was almost like she was transported back in time. 

But she wasn't. She was tragically stuck in her own time.

Finally, Octavia stopped in front of a building. It was a squat building, long, with a disproportionately pointed roof. It looked almost like a giant had squished an origami house, and, in an attempt to fix it, had pulled the roof back to a point and sat it back down again. This building was made of a wood frame, starkly different from the other buildings on the block. It reminded Clarke of an old Danish alehouse like one might see in Beowulf. Octavia pushed the door open. Soft violins played in a cheerful jig, similar to one that might be played in the background of a tavern on Critical Role. Clarke's eyes swept over the area, looking for dark, curly hair and lightly tanned skin. 

"Bellamy!" Octavia exclaimed suddenly, running across the floor. Clarke watched her collide with a figure hunched over on a bar stool. She smiled weakly. As much as Octavia bemoaned over her brother's overprotectiveness, she loved him more than anybody else in the world. It was sweet to watch her giving him affection for once. 

Clarke and Raven made it to the bar just as the shock had worn off from Bellamy. He turned and clutched his sister, breathing out heavily, tears streaming down his face and staining Octavia's armor. "I'm so glad that you're alive." 

"I am too Bell," Octavia said. 

He pushed her back, keeping his hands on her shoulders, He looked her up and down, "You're okay, you aren't hurt or anything?" 

"I'm fine," she said, shrugging off his hands. "We were going to look for Jasper, Monty, Finn, and Aden. Come with us?" 

"Yeah," Bellamy pushed off the stool and dusted off his armor. He straightened his sword belt and the shield on his back. He looked as though he'd already done some leveling and shopping for himself. His shield was shiny and new, redwood, painted with sky blue accents. His sword sat in a leather sheath, but Clarke could tell that it was just a regular short sword. "You guys know where they are?" 

"We do," Clarke opened her map again, seeing that Monty and Jasper had moved a little bit closer to them, but were still a ways away. "They're still on the other side of town. Here, join the party." 

He accepted the invitation and was taken back a bit. "You guys are already level 9?" 

"Yeah," Raven started, not noticing Octavia on her side, waving her hands frantically and all but  _begging_ Raven to stop talking. "We fought the boss."

Octavia's shoulder's slumped as Bellamy stopped and turned toward her, eyes blazing with overprotective fury. "You did what?! Do you know how dangerous that was?" 

Octavia bristled, her chest puffing out as she tried to stand on equal ground with her brother. "We didn't  _know_  that this would turn into a death trap! Plus, I was with a whole raiding party, do you know what the odds were that I would have died in that fight? I'll give you a hint, they were really slim!" 

"But there still was a chance!" 

Clarke stepped in between them. "Stop it! Do you guys want to fight now, or after we've found all our friends and made sure that they're okay? I know that tensions are high right now, but the sooner we find our friends, the sooner we can figure out what we need to do." 

Octavia and Bellamy slumped in unison. Bellamy sighed, "You're right. Let's hurry and get everybody else." 

"Thank you," Clarke said. She turned on her heel. They walked past the square again, this time going toward the market. This area of the city was much more populous, with players browsing the wooden stands for essentials. Clarke's eyes passed over some of the stalls as they followed the map to Jasper and Monty. The stalls included starter items and a few that were specifically for enhancing specific skills, including alchemy, smithing, and cooking. 

She was looking casually at the stall next to her when she noticed someone approaching out of the corner of her eye. She looked up to see Jasper, dragging Monty by their linked hands toward another stall. "Check it out!" he exclaimed, "It's like medieval robotics! Trapmaking!" 

Raven was running toward them before Clarke got the chance to. Still, that didn't stop her from doing it. Raven hit Jasper's back before her shout could make him turn around, and Clarke threw herself into Monty's arms in relief. Clarke couldn't see it, but based on the loud and painful, "OOF," she heard, the surprise attack from Raven forced Jasper onto the ground. 

"Oh, hey, it's Raven and Clarke," Monty said, patting Clarke's back a bit awkwardly. "And Bellamy and Octavia. What are you guys doing here?" 

"Are you guys really that dense?" Raven helped Jasper stand again. "Death game and all? We wanted to make sure you guys were okay!" 

Jasper rubbed his forehead, "Death game? What're you guys talking about?" 

Clarke and Raven went silent. Clarke moved back to get a look at Monty and Jasper, making note of their armor and class. Monty had decided to play a mage like Clarke. His robes were burgundy, hanging off of his lithe frame. He still had the default sandals and staff that came with the mage kit. At his hip sat a spell book which didn't come with the basic starting items that she received, and she had to wonder if it was an accessory used to level up a secondary skill. His hair was shorter than it was in real life, and Clarke wondered if he would have chosen to cut his hair like his character if he could. 

Jasper had chosen to play a rogue like Raven had. His leather armor seemed to be a little bit fancier than Raven's was. Fur peeked out of the inside of his armor, probably good for colder climates, and a cloak covered his shoulders wrapping around his neck. Instead of a regular longbow at his back, he had a crossbow. He had a pouch at his right hip, which Clarke assumed was his bolt pouch. 

Octavia stepped in, eyebrows narrowed. "Wait you guys seriously don't know? Didn't you notice the message from the Gamemaster?" 

"Oh, I have my notifications off," Jasper laughed, starting to pull up his menu. 

Raven stopped him. "We don't have time for you to watch his message right now. The majority of it is just Titus toying with us anyway. Long story short, we're trapped in the game until somebody beats the final boss on floor 100. Die in the game and your brain is fried in real life.

"No way," Monty said quietly. He locked eyes with Jasper, and for a few moments, Clarke thought they would break down like they all had. Just as she was about to place a comforting hand on Monty's shoulder, the two of them shared an enthusiastic high-five and handshake. They ended it with a tight hug, but not in the relieved, reassured way that Clarke, Octavia, and Raven had hugged when they received this news. Monty and Jasper were excited. 

"I've always wanted to live in a video game!" Monty exclaimed, grinning like he had just won the lottery. "This is gonna be so cool!" 

Clarke's mouth nearly hung open. "There's no way you two are serious." 

"Clarke, think about it, this is kinda awesome." Jasper said, "We get to  _live in a video game._  And there's no way that Titus' company is gonna get away with doing this without a major lawsuit. Chances are we won't even have to pay for the medical expenses or anything." 

She didn't even know where to  _begin_ to respond to him regarding that. Instead, she just shook her head and decided to let him think whatever he wanted to about their situation. "Okay, we can debate the pros and cons of being stuck inside a video game later. For now, we need to stick together, and we need to find Finn and Aden." 

"Clarke's right," Bellamy said, "If we want to make sure we all get out of this game alive, we need to stick together, or at least stay in constant contact." 

"Finn's still in the fields outside of town," Raven sent Jasper and Monty party invitations. "We should head there next."

"Then we need to find Aden," Clarke said, "As far as I'm aware, he's all alone out here. And he wouldn't let me friend him, so I have no way of knowing where he is." 

"Oh, Aden? I can find out where he is, I have him on my friends list." Jasper said flippantly, scrolling through his friends list.

"Wait, hold on." Clarke stepped up to him, skeptical and curious. "Why is he friends with you but he wouldn't let  _me_  friend him?"

"Oh, uh..." Jasper paused, trying to take a step back, "He thinks I'm cool?" 

Octavia scoffed, laughing. "Nobody thinks you're cool Jasper."

Jasper sputtered, "What? Tons of people think I'm cool. Aden does."

"Yeah, the people you sell weed to think you're  _real_ cool." Raven leaned back against a wall, examining her fingernails.

Jasper whipped his head around and glared at her, "Hey, roommate's code!"

"Wait," Clarke got even closer to him, jabbing her finger in his chest, eyes alight with fury. "Do you sell weed to my little cousin?!"

He put his hands up, trying to protect himself. "Hey, woah! So I might sell him a little bit of herb every once and a while. Do you want to focus on that right now, or would you rather find him?"

Clarke pursed her lips, and, while part of her wanted to stick to this topic and get to the bottom of it, she knew that finding him was the more important task at the moment. She stepped back and crossed her arms, sighing. "Fine. Just tell us where he is. But you’d better believe we’re coming back to this conversation later.”

Jasper scrolled through his friends list until he found Aden and pulled up his location on the map. "Looks like he's in the fields too, closer to the dungeon though."

"The dungeon?" Octavia said, "What level is he?"

Jasper held up five fingers, and Clarke gasped. The boss had been tough on everybody in the raiding party, and even if Aden was with a group, him being level five was a huge risk. Especially if he was using a melee build. That would almost guarantee that he would take heavy amounts of damage from the boss directly. If that was the case, then one single well-timed hit from the boss between frantic health potions could mean his health dropping to zero; the chip in his VRV would explode.

The world turned gray and lifeless. Her heart was racing, and she felt as though she could feel sweat running down her face and back. Her breathing started to labor. The worst-case scenario, where Aden died, where she hadn’t been able to stop him from doing something reckless. She would be stuck inside this game, fighting half-heartedly, knowing that Aden wouldn’t be there if she got out. He would be in a casket, underneath six feet of dirt, a hole burned in his skull.

She imagined a stop sign, bright, neon red against the gray that had crept its way into her imagination. She imagined holding it up against the thoughts raging in her head. She focused in on its message, imagining in vivid detail how the metal of the sign would feel in her hand. She imagined it, cold and solid, and forced herself to think of nothing other than that, and her breathing for a few moments. Slowly, the red color of the sign began to bleed into the world again.

Gradually, she was pulled back from her mind. The first thing she noticed was that she was on the floor, sitting cross-legged and with her back leaning against the wall. Raven and Octavia were sitting on either side of her, each of them holding one of her hands. Raven's other hand was rubbing up and down her arm. Clarke blinked, lifting her head from the wall dazedly.

"Are you okay, Clarke?" Octavia asked, "I guess that's one of the downsides of living in a video game. We can't help you calm down from an anxiety attack like we normally would."

"Yeah, those pictures of fat babies really help you calm down after you've had an attack," Raven said, continuing her steady, calming motions. Clarke nodded, still unable to speak. She focused on the warmth of Raven and Octavia's hands, staring straight ahead. She looked down to the cobblestone ground, following the textured bumps and ridges with her eyes. Finally, after a few minutes of deep breathing and quiet, she felt somewhat normal again.  

She looked up from the ground. "Where are the boys?" 

"They went on ahead of us," Octavia stood and dusted off her pants. "Bell's never been very... comforting, so we figured it would be useful if they went ahead and recruited Finn to the party instead of standing around awkwardly."

"And honestly," Raven laughed a bit, but Clarke thought she might have been hiding pain. "I don’t trust Finn not to be a huge man-baby in regards being in a party with both of us at the same time. It might be easier, on all of us, if he has some time to get used to the idea.

Clarke nodded, "You have a point. But how are we going to find Aden without Jasper?"

"Check this out," Raven stood up and offered Clarke a hand, smiling. She opened her map, zooming out so that she could see the whole floor. She pointed to a small light blue marker on the map. "You can share waypoints with your party. Jasper set up a public waypoint of where Aden is, and he'll update it every few minutes in case he moves." 

"Huh," Clarke said, "Interesting. Looks like he's just farming the random encounters on the road to the dungeon right now, but we should stop him before he gets there. We'd better head out, if he gets inside the dungeon, we might not catch up to him." 

The three of them started walking briskly toward the exit of town. As the sun continued to go down, lanterns (and torches, the closer that they got to the gate) lining the streets began to spontaneously light. Clarke started to feel the effects of being awake for too long. She started yawning, eyes straining to stay open in the low light. Her limbs began to feel heavy, and she could tell that Raven and Octavia were beginning to feel similarly. They were dragging their feet, letting their shoulder's slump down, but Clarke pushed them on.

"After we grab Aden, or at least make sure that he's okay and not going to do anything stupid, we can rest." They walked through the fields, the tall grass offering resistance similar to that of walking through ankle-deep waters. The long shadows of the trees surrounding them made Clarke feel small, and to counter that, she pulled her staff off of her back and concentrated her mana into creating light. She used her staff as a walking stick, a ball of light held out in her other hand in front of them. 

"We should go to the next floor," Octavia suggested. Her eyes followed a group of level 3 wolves. The pack seemed to appraise them, then the alpha wolf whimpered and turned tail, leading the rest of the pack back into the darkness. "I don't even think we can farm effectively on this floor anymore, and I don't think it'd be a good idea to fall behind."

"Not everybody in our group is the same level as us, O," Clarke said, glancing back at her, but keeping her focus on their path. "Even Bellamy is a lower level than us. We should probably help them level."

Raven stepped up into Clarke's vision. "I have to agree with Octavia on this. The others will level up faster on the second floor, and if things start to look bad, we'll be there to help."

Clarke hummed. They both had good points. "How about this; we stay the night on this floor, then tomorrow we'll head to the market and gear up for anything we might need, then head we can go to the second floor."

"Thank God," Octavia said under her breath, "This floor was starting to really bore me. And I know I should feel bad for everybody, but this place really bums me out."

"Same," Raven said, "This floor is depressing as fuck."

Clarke didn't say anything, instead she thought back to the players strewn about the first floor, staring off into the distance. Her mind wandered back to the boss room, the chaotic effect that Titus' message had on the players. Logically, she knew that the first few days after trauma would be the worst. Many players were going to feel hopeless, and Clarke couldn't exactly blame them. The task ahead of them seemed near impossible. She began to wonder if this feeling of panic and anxiety would persist throughout the entire game, or if she would ever feel normal in this world. Would she always be worried about the survival of her friends and family in this infinitely more dangerous and unpredictable world?

Suddenly, her center of gravity shifted, and Octavia's hand clapped onto her shoulder, helping to right her before she could fall. She had stepped in a hole hidden by tall grass. The lapse in concentration caused the light in her hand to extinguish, leaving them in darkness, save for the minuscule light provided by the moon above. Noticing the shift, Raven quickly moved to help, helping Clarke stand straight again.  She nodded in thanks to them both, giving them a small smile, which persisted for a few more minutes. The gentle reminder that Octavia and Raven were still at her side was comforting. 

Clarke chugged a mana potion and sparked her light up again. They continued walking, now having reached the dirt path that leads to the dungeon through the shortcut they took through the fields. Clarke squinted. Up ahead, she could see light. It looked almost like fire. She strained her ears, picking up her speed. She could hear voices up ahead. She made out figures the closer she got to them, and as soon as she saw mussed ginger hair and lanky frame, she knew it was him. 

"Aden!" Clarke yelled as she took off running. The distance gave him enough time to react, and he stopped and turned, his green eyes colored with confusion until he recognized her.

He started walking forward, arms outstretched. She collided with him, chin resting on his shoulder as all her worries and fears streamed out of her eyes. She couldn't say anything for a few minutes, as overcome with relief as she was. Clarke had seen him the week before, for his 17th birthday party, but that felt like so long ago now. This day alone felt like it lasted for weeks. Now, with her arms clutching his back, Aden's own tears staining her robes, she felt reinvigorated.

"How did you find me?" Aden asked, his voice cracking from emotion. "I'm so sorry that I didn't let you add me, I didn't- I  _couldn't_ have expected something like this would happen." 

"I found out from Jasper. Which, by the way," Clarke sniffed, stepping back and wiping her face with her sleeve. Aden's expression was slightly panicked when he realized what it meant that Clarke knew that he and Jasper were friends. "I am going to let slide, just this once, because he helped us find you. And because we've got bigger things to do than to worry about you smoking pot." 

Aden couldn't look her in the eye anymore. He looked to the ground, scratching the back of his neck. "So, to be clear, you  _aren't_ going to tell my parents?" 

Clarke rolled her eyes. Typical teenager, worried about the least important things. "No, I'm not. As long as it’s just recreational, and it doesn’t become something you need to function." 

She finally took the time to look around at his group. She counted 8 people, including Aden. If they were planning to raid the boss and dungeon, this was a very small group in comparison to the group Clarke had been in. Not only that, but the majority of the group was made up of melee and ranged fighters. Out of ten, Clarke saw one mage, and there was no guarantee that they had even taken any skill points into healing skills. She frowned, appraising Aden's kit of starting ranger gear, including the basic bow and arrows. Almost the whole group seemed to be still in their starting gear. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Aden,  _please_ tell me that this group isn't going to fight the boss." 

One of the swordsmen near the back puffed out his chest, huffing. The name above his head read Evan the Destroyer. "So? what if we were? Why would you care?" 

Clarke scoffed. The boy standing in front of her was tall and built like a brick wall, but the pimpled landscape of his face and the baby fat still decorating his cheeks gave away his age. He towered over Clarke, likely over six feet tall, but he didn't intimidate her at all. Evan might have been built like an NFL linebacker, but that didn't mean jack shit to her right now. Especially considering that they were inside a virtual reality game, where real life physicality would mean absolutely nothing in regard to in-game ability. It didn't matter how much he could bench in real life; only how many experience points he had amassed. And from the looks of him, he hadn't gotten much done since launch. 

Clarke narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Well, considering I was part of the raiding party that beat the first boss, I think I would know that a party of ten people under level 7 is a bad idea." 

Most of Aden's group gasped, and a few of them took a half step forward. Clarke was bombarded with questions, overlapping in a way that she could barely understand the majority of them. She was able to pick out a few of them, however, and the inaccuracy of them sent her reeling. One girl asked if it was true that the boss was nothing but a tutorial on the basics of advanced combat. The boy next to Aden turned to her and insisted that the boss was a dragon, and he had heard that killing it would give them the most powerful armor in the game. Clarke couldn't believe what she was hearing. Where was all of this misinformation coming from? 

That didn't seem to faze Evan's thick skull, however. He raised his hand, stopping the group's chattering. He smirked, and, with a condescending voice, said, "Oh, are you sure that the boss was that hard? Or was it because your little party of girls was too busy running away to fight the boss efficiently?" 

A couple of the other guys behind him laughed, and Evan turned around and gave a few of them high-fives. 

Raven stepped up, visibly angry. "Oh, you guy's better hold me back, I'm 'bout to smash his face in."

"Raven, no!" Octavia said, grabbing Raven's arm. "Let me do it." 

"Oh, you think you can take me, little girl?" Evan taunted, drawing his beginner sword. "C'mon then, take a swing."

Clarke looked over to Aden, "This is who you hang out with?" 

Aden's gaze shifted between Octavia and Evan. He shook his head and pushed his arms between them. "Okay, look. There's a duel function. Evan, if she beats you in a duel, that'll prove that we aren't ready to fight a boss, okay?" 

"Okay, fine. But I'm not gonna fight her." Evan looked between Aden and Octavia, and a slow, syrupy smile came across his face as his eyes landed on Clarke. He drew his sword and pointed it at Clarke. "I want to fight her."

"Fine with me." Clarke rolled her eyes at the dramatics that Evan was displaying. She scrolled through her actions menu and sent him a duel request, pulling her staff off of her back. "Let's just get this over with."

Evan accepted the request with a wicked smile. A wide circle spread out from their feet, outlining the space that would be their battlefield. Members of both groups scrambled to the outskirts of the arena, not wanting to get caught up in the duel. "Ready to get destroyed, little girl?" 

Clarke was almost afraid that her eyes would fall out of her head because of how hard she rolled them. She didn't feel the need to dignify him with a response and instead changed her status to Ready. A timer appeared between them, counting down from five where even the spectators could see. As the timer started, Clarke's eyes swept over Evan's form. He took a very lax fighting stance, holding his sword over his chest with his knees slightly bent, betraying his overconfidence to Clarke. She wondered what he would do first, if he would wait for her to make the first move, or if he would come at her straight out of the gate. 

A bell rang. Evan raised his sword and broke out into a run, shouting in what Clarke guessed was his best attempt at a war cry. Clarke didn't know exactly what level he was, but she guessed that her level 1 Oakflesh spell should give her enough shielding in case he managed to hit her. She held her oak staff up, watching where Evan held his sword carefully. As he got closer, he began to pull it up above his head, and Clarke held up her staff in response, bracing it above her head with both hands. When his sword came down, it hit her staff with a loud  _thunk!_

Evan then found himself in a pickle. His sword was almost stuck in Clarke's staff. His height, which he might have considered an advantage before the battle began, was suddenly a disadvantage to him. His tall stature gave Clarke enough leeway to pull her left hand away from her staff and sink it into his stomach. What he may not have realized was that his beginner's breastplate didn't cover his stomach, it only covered his chest and lower rib cage. 

That punch may not have done a lot of damage, but since they could still feel pain in this world Clarke figured it would be enough to knock the wind out of him. He staggered backward, his sword falling to his side as he cupped his stomach, eyes squeezed shut for a moment. When he looked back again, Clarke's staff was pointing directly at him. A white light emanated from the tip just before a wave of frost and cold covered him. Clarke kept the spell up, watching looking above his head to his health bar. She watched the green getting swallowed up by red, and when he had about a fourth of his health left, she stopped the spell. 

 _Oh man,_ Clarke thought, looking at Evan. He was frozen solid, essentially. A thick coating of ice had surrounded his whole body, but Clarke could still see his eyes moving. She pursed her lips, weighing her options, wondering if she should leave him to stand there or if she should do something. Finally, she shrugged and rose her staff over her head. She pulled it down, conking him on the head, cracking the sheet of ice around his body. Evan fell face-first into a patch of frosted grass. About fifteen seconds passed of him lying on the grass, unmoving, before the duel timed out. The barrier that had prevented others from interfering dissipated into particles which floated up toward the sky. 

Clarke turned back to the spectators. "Well?" she asked, "Is that proof enough for you all?" 

The group of teenagers, Aden included, were left with mouths gaping and eyes wide. A few of them regained their wits faster than others, closing their mouths and nodding. Clarke turned her attention back to Evan, who still hadn't moved. She pursed her lips, guessing that he must have passed out. She knelt down to him, doing her best to turn him over, then fishing out a health potion from her inventory. Even if he would be okay, it wouldn't hurt to leave him with a gesture of good faith. She pulled on his jaw and raised his head, silently hoping that it was impossible to choke in the game as she poured the potion down his throat. 

Clarke watched his health bar fill back up, but he still hadn't woken up. She frowned, lowering his head back onto the ground. 

"Ready to go back, Clarke?" Raven and Octavia approached. Raven was looking at her messages. "The boys are already back in town, they said they snagged us a room. But uh, just for us. Not everybody." 

"We can't leave until he wakes up." Clarke insisted. The rest of Aden's group had started to come toward them now. "I don't suppose any of you want to carry Evan back to town, do you?" 

"He's like, 200 pounds." One of the boys said, scoffing. "I think the only person who could carry him is himself." 

"Well, then we're gonna have to wait for him then." 

"No way," Octavia said. "I'm not waiting for him. He's not in our group, and I'm tired and hungry. Let the high-schoolers deal with it." 

"If we leave him out here, he could die, Octavia. We need every possible player if we want to get back home." Clarke insisted, giving Octavia a hard stare. Instead of yielding, Octavia just stared right back, the agitation in her eyes growing stronger with every passing moment. Clarke sighed, looking between Octavia, Raven, and the young kids. "Okay, how about you and Raven escort the kids back to town, and I'll stay here until Evan wakes up." 

"Fine by me," Octavia said. She turned her head and projected her voice, calling for all the kids to follow her. Clarke watched the group dwindle as Octavia and Raven began to lead them back to town until only Aden was left. 

"Aren't you going to go with them?" Clarke asked, "You don't need to stay here with me." 

"Actually, I think I do. Chances are, he won't be very happy if he just sees you when he wakes up." 

"Good point." Clarke smoothed her robe, sitting on the slightly damp grass. Aden sat next to her, watching his own thumbs dance around each other. He looked anxious. Clarke could recall one other time when he had acted like this with her. "So... how do you know Evan?" 

"Oh, he's one of my friend's older brothers." Aden pulled his knees up to his chest. "Do you... think we'll make it out of here?" 

Clarke immediately slid over, resting one hand on his knee. "Hey, we're going be fine. We've just got to be careful and smart. As long as we all stick together, it's going to be alright." 

Aden was starting to tear up. His face twisted with anger (Clarke knew how much he hated crying), and he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "Damn it. I've been on hormones for years now, I thought I was done crying at every little thing. What's my body going to be like when I wake up? Are they going to continue my hormones while I'm lying in a coma for however long this is gonna take?" 

Clarke wrapped her arm around his shoulder, pulling him close to her. She didn't say anything, instead, she let him continue talking, knowing that it was important for him to get his worries out. Vocalizing them was the first step to facing them.

"I'm gonna miss so many firsts while we're in this damn game. Facial hair, muscle mass... fuck, I'm probably gonna lose all the muscle I had anyways." Aden squeezed his eyes shut, trying to stop the tears. He pressed his hand to his forehead. "This is all so frustrating." 

"I know, Aden. But you're young, and anything that happens while we're stuck here can be fixed when we get out." Clarke said, rubbing his shoulder. "We just have to make the most of it. But I know we can survive this. Trust me, Aden." 

He wiped his eyes again, nodding. She smiled down at him. This wasn't going to be easy, but Aden was strong. If he could survive transitioning socially, during high school no less, there was no way this was going to break him. 

A groan behind them pulled Clarke's attention away. Evan had started to wake up, and Aden rushed to kneel beside him. Clarke moved out of sight, trusting that Aden knew what he was talking about. "Hey, Evan, how do you feel?" 

"Like shit." he sat up slowly, rubbing his head where Clarke had struck him. "She really beat the shit out of me." 

Aden didn't respond directly to that. He stood, offering his hand to Evan. "It's late, we should head back to town." 

Evan sighed, taking Aden's hand. Clarke figured that now would be as good a time as any to reintroduce herself. When Evan noticed her, he looked at her warily. "You're still here." 

"You're observant." 

He scratched the back of his head meekly. "Look, I'm sorry about what I said." 

"Okay." 

"I-" He paused. "Aren't you going to forgive me?" 

"No, you haven't earned that," Clarke said. She turned, "Anyway, like Aden said, we need to head back. It's late, and I'm exhausted." 

She could tell that she had thrown Evan for a loop, but nonetheless, he didn't say anything else to her. She led them down the dirt path leading back to town, lost in her own thoughts. When the initial bundles for  _Weather the Storm_ had been announced, Clarke had wondered why there were no strategy guides available. At the time she had decided that Titus had wanted to make the majority of the game a secret, but Clarke had written that off as wanting to increase replayability. An unintended consequence of this was that there was a stunning lack of information about mobs, abilities, and items available to the public, as she had seen with Aden's group earlier.

When they arrived back at town, Clarke thought back on the day. Lincoln had been able to post on the bulletin board for all players, so that means that there must be a way to send messages en mass to all players. The streets were empty as she wandered down the road, following Raven’s marker to the inn. Evan and Aden parted ways with her to the rest of their group, Aden promising to meet up with her tomorrow.

Her footsteps kept her company through the eerie quiet. Clarke couldn’t help the tremendous buildup of anxiety in her stomach as her ears strained for any noise they could find. Finally, delirious with exhaustion and yet with mind racing, she made it to the inn. The room contained four single beds, and Clarke found the last one that sat unused, using the final reserves of her strength to unequip her clothing and weapons, before collapsing in bed.

 

“Woah, Clarke, check this out! A smithing kit!” Raven dragged Clarke by her sleeves across the street, bending over to examine the kit with eyes full of excitement. “I wonder what all I could make with this…”

As Raven began to verbally speculate the answer to that question, Clarke only half listened. Her mind was elsewhere, thinking back to this morning. She had woken up with hardly any more energy than she had gone to sleep with, thanks to the lovely argument between the Blake siblings about what they should all have for breakfast. Bellamy had gotten the most sleep, having been asleep when Octavia and Raven got back for who knows how long. Clarke had been the last to get back and had likely gotten a measly four hours of sleep.

But once the Blake siblings were up and at their daily bickering, there was no stopping them. No amount of pillows held to her ears could keep Clarke from hearing them, and she had reluctantly gotten up. The arguments pace changed from topic to topic until Clarke finally decided she couldn’t take it anymore. She snapped, a combination of annoyance and exhaustion, and all but ordered them to direct their anger elsewhere.

Several deep breaths later, she suggested that Octavia take Bellamy, Monty, Jasper, and Finn out to the fields to get their levels up a little before they headed to the next floor. Octavia and Bellamy had looked at each other before they shuffled out of the room, mumbling to themselves pensively.

Clarke would have been content to collapse back into bed and sleep the day away, but Raven had other plans. Upon her insistence, Clarke was dragged to the market, led only by Raven’s hand on her forearm through the surprisingly bustling street, weaving through the stalls.

Clarke’s mind tuned back in to the present. Raven seemed engrossed in reading the description of the smithing kit. Clarke sighed, slumped forward, arms limp at her sides, until she something caught her eye. On the table at a deserted stall, was a publication kit. Her eyes narrowed as she reached for it.  _This must be what Lincoln used to publish his quest on the boards,_  Clarke thought as she read through what the item allowed one to do. Not only could she post on boards, but the publication kit would allow her to, well, publish books or pamphlets, which could be given away or sold.

She glanced back at Raven as she purchased the kit and stowed it away in her inventory for later. “Hey, if I bought that for you, would you make me some new armor?” Clarke asked, glancing over Raven’s shoulder to peek at the price. She grimaced internally; buying both the kits would almost completely wipe her out in terms of gold.

“Oh hell yeah I would,” Raven said. “I don’t think I can make robes with this though, are you planning to switch to battlemage?”

“I don’t know,” Clarke said, her fingers hovering over the confirm purchase button. “But it wouldn’t hurt to have better armor. Not like this robe gives me increased mana regeneration or anything.”

The second she placed the kit in Raven’s hands, she was off running. “Thanks!” she yelled as she sped away, “See ya!”

Clarke decided it would be best if she gave Raven some time to get acquainted with her new possession, so she walked back to the room they shared at the inn slowly. There was no need to rush, especially since Raven would be working at the skill from the bottom. The first half an hour or so with the kit could be just Raven figuring out how it works.

 _She has always been a fast learner, though,_ Clarke thought, pushing open the door of the inn. If she knew Raven, she hadn’t eaten anything today, and she was too occupied working to even think about it. She ordered two meals from the bar and brought them to their room. Raven was busy bustling around the room. She had unpacked the smithing kit, which included a grindstone, anvil, smelter, and workbench. The room was suddenly very crowded, and Clarke felt somewhat claustrophobic from the second she entered.

“I got you some food, Rae,” She said, setting it down on the workbench. She couldn’t ignore it if it was on her equipment.

“Uh-huh,” Raven said, completely engrossed in looking through lists of things she could make. “Hey, what’s your strength at?”

Clarke pulled up her character stats, swallowing the bite of bread she had been chewing. “12, why?”

Raven grinned, “There’s a piece of armor I can make you that has a strength requirement of 10. It should have a better armor rating than your robes, even if the quality won’t be great.”

“Awesome, go for it then,” Clarke said. She sat down on her bed, watching Raven work as she ate. Since this was Raven’s first work, she was getting step by step instructions as she moved along. At some point, Clarke leaned back on her bed and started to drift off to sleep. She found herself stuck between sleep and reality, the outside world and her mind. She lost track of time, trudging her feet through the heavy sand, the heaviness in her limbs.

Raven’s voice drifted into her mind, drawing with vivid images of actions that matched her speech. Every so often she heard the sound of a hammer striking metal, sparking a flash of white light behind her eyes. She was suddenly aware; she was asleep but not quite. Her body wasn’t responding to her, no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t even twitch her own fingers. Sparks ran up and down her arms, static electricity buzzed through her legs. This was how she looked in her hospital bed, her mother kneeling over her as Raven kneeled over the anvil.

The thought jolted her awake. She sat up, panting, cold sweat breaking out on the back of her neck. She touched her hand to her forehead, gripping the comforter with her other hand.

“Alright,” Raven said, appraising her work. “It’s not amazing quality, but it’s not horrible either.”

Clarke stood from the bed, putting the armor in her inventory. The chain link shirt was technically better than her robes. Wearing it would give her 25 physical defense instead of 19, but her magic defense would go down to 23 from 29. “Thanks.”

Switching her robes with the chainmail had a few… unintended consequences. She hadn’t paid attention to the fact that the top and bottom halves of her robes didn’t separate when the robes were taken off. Because of this, when she replaced her robes with the chainmail, she suddenly found herself wearing no pants, only the default boy shorts style underwear. And though the chainmail reached to the middle of her thighs, it was still a little bit see-through.

She could feel the cold metal against her skin, and she looked down to find that she wasn’t wearing a shirt underneath. Luckily, she still wore a bra, but it didn’t do much to hide her. The “bra,” was more like a skimpy bikini top, barely covering everything that it needed to.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Clarke exclaimed, she turned to Raven, who, upon being looked at, burst out into repressed laughter. “Did you know it would look like this?”

“You’re supposed to put that on  _under_ your robes, Clarke!” Raven wiped a tear from her eyes. “There’s a slot above the primary armor spot for under-armor. But  _please_ keep it like this for a while.”

“Why in the hell would I do that?” Clarke asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She brought one hand up to start going back to her inventory, but Raven grabbed her hand and stopped her.

“Think about how many people will want me to make them armor if they see a hot girl with great tits wearing my armor.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Just until we get to the inn on the next floor,” Raven begged. “I’ll give you a cut of the profits.”

Clarke thought back to the meager amount of money she had left after buying both the smithing and publishing kits. “50/50.”

“65/35.”

“Fine, but I get to wear pants.”

“Shorts.”

“You buy them, and we’ve got a deal.”

It was more of a lucky thing for Raven, Clarke decided, that the layout of the second floor’s main town was vastly different from the first. Clarke had assumed that they would be out for maybe 15 minutes, but as it turned out, it was closer to 45. Every time someone looked at her for too long, men and women alike, Raven would proclaim loudly that she made her armor. About every third time somebody would approach Raven and ask to get her contact information. Clarke’s only solace in this situation was knowing that she would get 35% of whatever that person paid Raven.

 

Raven had rented a room at an inn on the floor, big enough for everybody in their party to join them after they finished grinding levels. Clarke chose the closest bed to the door and laid down, not bothering to take the armor off or change into her robes, which were admittedly much more comfortable. She would do it after she took a nap.

However, not even five minutes into settling in, somebody was knocking at the door. Clarke groaned, looking over to Raven, who seemed completely unphased by the knocking. She scrolled idly through her messages, responding to some, archiving others. Clarke laid still, hoping if they ignored the person at the door they might go away, and for a moment it seemed like it worked.

“Hello?” they knocked again, and Clarke sighed. She pushed herself up and made her way to the door.

“Can I help you?” she asked as she opened the door, and behind it she found a woman a bit taller than herself, with long brown hair and striking green eyes. Resting on her right shoulder was a shiny plate of metal with a red cloth streaming from it, which she had wrapped loosely around her neck. The name above her head read Lexa Nightblood. Behind her was a taller woman with blonde hair, her face set in a scowl, name reading Anya Twinswords.

_Wait, I’ve seen those eyes before…_

“Yeah, are you Raven? I… uh…”  Lexa trailed off, eyes falling down below Clarke’s neck. She watched the conflicted mix of emotions that ran over her face, wondering if she should be offended or not. Suddenly Lexa jolted forward, clearing her throat. She glared back at Anya, then looked forward again, eyes darting to the left of Clarke’s head. “I heard you were taking orders for making armor and weapons. I was wondering if I could place one.”

“Oh, that’s me, sorry,” Raven said, rushing up to stand next to Clarke. She put her arms around Clarke’s shoulders, pointing to Clarke’s chest with a grin. “What’cha think of my work, pretty good, right?”

Lexa’s eyes followed Raven’s hand until she reached Clarke’s chest again, and she turned her head and coughed into her elbow in what Clarke assumed was an excuse to look away. “Yeah, it’s great, could I place an order?”

Clarke noticed Anya barely holding back a smile. She turned to Raven and found the two of them locking eyes, humor passing between them silently. Clarke shrugged out of Raven’s arm, turning to walk into the room again. A small part of her mind rejected the idea of changing back into her robes in the presence of this strange woman. She obviously found Clarke attractive in nothing but her chainmail shirt, and if she were in the real world, she might have reveled in this and teased her about it.

But she wasn’t in the real world. She opened her equipment and switched out the chainmail for her robes, then put the chainmail back on underneath. Raven led the two women into the room, winking at Clarke as she shut the door behind them.

“I’ve got a lot of orders piling up already, but if you put in a down payment now I can bump you up in my priorities. What do you need?”

Lexa followed her inside, glancing at Clarke once more before answering. “I wanted to get a better pair of swords. I can retrieve the ores that you need, but I need better ones for my stats. Beginner swords aren’t cutting it with 26 strength and 22 dexterity.”

Raven nodded, pinching her chin between her thumb and forefinger. She scrolled through her crafting menu, showing Lexa the options she had to choose from. Eventually, Lexa decided on her swords. She watched Raven’s attention switch to the other woman then, and Clarke tried to stifle her laughter.

“What about you,” Raven asked, “Anything that you want?”

“I’ll manage.” Clarke saw her finally crack a smile. “Come on, Lexa, we’ve got to find that ore if you want your swords.”

Lexa left a purse of gold in Raven’s hands when she decided on an amount for the down payment. They started toward the door, but Lexa stalled. She turned back and looked at Clarke. Their eyes locked, Lexa’s eyes on the door. She looked as though she wanted to say something but couldn’t.

Clarke found herself unable to look away. Her eyes trailed over Lexa’s face, her cheekbones, her eyebrows, her pillow-like lips. She realized she was holding her breath, and as she released the air she had been holding captive in her lungs, she saw Lexa do the same. Clarke looked into her eyes again, unable to see the color from this far away, but she could visualize it so clearly in her head that it was almost as if she could.

“Lexa! Come on, you huge gay disaster!”

Lexa jolted, pulling the two of them from their haze. Without another word, she walked through the threshold. Clarke almost felt as if she could still feel the weight of her gaze. She groaned, pulling the covers of the bed over her head.

“You know Clarke,” Raven said as she typed more messages. “ _You_ are also a gay disaster.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I realized after I wrote this that I accidentally named the douchebag in this chapter the same name as my girlfriends sweet 8-year-old little brother. Oops. Sorry, Evan (not that he'll ever read this, hopefully).


End file.
